It was no surprise that
Fernando Alonso qualified fifth today at Suzuka, given
it is his most repeated result of the season, but this
time, his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa did one better
and will start tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix from
fourth place, so that Scuderia Ferrari has one car on
the second row of the grid and the other on the third.
Maybe it’s no surprise that Sebastian Vettel will start
what could be his championship winning race from pole
position: after all it will be the twelfth time this
year he has claimed the top slot on the grid for his Red
Bull. However, it was at least slightly surprising given
that McLaren had dominated the free practice sessions.
In the end, the German beat his only theoretical rival
for the title, Jenson Button, by nine thousandths of a
second.
Lewis Hamilton took the third spot and it’s certainly
not surprising that after events in Singapore and other
races this season, the press is already speculating
about what it means to have Felipe and the Englishman so
close to one another, sharing the second row at the
start. The Brazilian Ferrari man has wisely stated that
it is of no importance. Sharing the third row with
Fernando is the second Red Bull, driven by Mark Webber.
After this, the situation for the remaining four drivers
who took part in Q3 and complete the top ten is
currently a bit confusing: local hero Kamui Kobayashi
was the first of the quartet to go out in Q3 and
therefore it seems he should be promoted to seventh
ahead of the other three, which would certainly prove
popular with the home crowd. At the time of writing, the
matter is still being debated by the authorities.
Not up for debate is
that, in terms of lap time, the two 150º Italias are not
far off the Red Bulls and McLarens and over 53 laps of
one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar, a
podium is not an unrealistic target: anything better
than that would require some more surprises.
Stefano Domenicali: “Before moving on
to talk about our performance today, I would take this
opportunity for a more general observation. Once again
today, as has happened before during this season, we
have seen cars – no less than four in Q3 – give up on
doing a flying lap. Far be it for me to criticise those
who made this choice, which is absolutely respectable
from a technical point of view, I think it shows
something is not right in the way qualifying is run and
we should give it some careful thought for the future,
because I don’t think it’s such a good thing for the
spectators in the grandstand, who, I must say here are
amazing in the way they make you feel their passion for
Formula 1 and for those who are watching on television.
Moving on to our result, I have to say it is more or
less what we expected. We know where we stand at the
moment technically and we have to try and make the most
of every opportunity to fight for a podium finish. We
will attempt that with our trademark level of
determination.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a difficult
qualifying session but at least we managed to keep one
of the four best cars behind us. It’s never easy here to
put together the perfect lap and my last run was very
good, even if I lost a little bit in the final sector.
Tomorrow, it will be important to get a good start.
Hamilton alongside me on the grid? It makes no
difference to me if it’s him or anyone else. The race
looks like being a complicated one, with a lot of stops
to change tyres that show significant degradation here,
so it follows that strategy will play a key role. It
will be vital to find the right pace, so as to be quick,
but at the same time, save the tyres. Overtaking will
not be easy, despite KERS and DRS: maybe tyre wear will
count for more, given that you come onto the main
straight off a very slow chicane. Our aim is the podium:
we’re starting one place off it, so it’s a realistic
expectation.”
Fernando Alonso: “I am not very
surprised by this result: at the end of the day, McLaren
and Red Bull have been quicker than us all weekend long
and at least we have managed to get ahead of Webber. I
seem to have a season ticket for fifth place this year
and at least it means I start from the clean side of the
track. Tomorrow I expect significant tyre degradation to
be a key feature of the race, with the possibility of
several pit stops, which means strategy will play a very
important role. We hope we won’t have the same problems
as in Singapore two weeks ago. We will try and make the
best choices and fight for a podium finish, which is a
realistic target. The win is certainly less so: as we
saw in qualifying, McLaren seem very close to Red Bull
here. The start will also be an important moment: both
myself and Felipe will try and put pressure on those
closest to us and then, if we happen to make up some
places we will try and have our say. My first run in Q3?
I was pushing to the maximum but, after looking at the
lap time analysis, I don’t think I could have done much
better than my second run.”
Pat Fry: “Overall, this is the result
we could have expected. We felt that, if we put together
the best possible package and squeezed the most out of
it, then we could hope to reduce the gap to pole
compared to recent races: that’s how things turned out,
even if it definitely does not affect the hierarchy down
pit lane. Felipe had a great qualifying, especially in
Q3, so we really hope that for once, he can have a
normal race after all the problems he has encountered
recently. Tomorrow’s race will be very tough, especially
for the tyres which, historically at this track are
given a hard time. It therefore becomes crucial to
select the right strategy, pinpointing the best moment
to change tyres and, especially, not to make any
mistakes. We have a duty to fight right to the very end
to achieve the objectives that are still within our
grasp this season and we will leave nothing to chance.
At the same time, we have to use the remaining days we
have on track this season to learn as much as possible
about elements that could be useful for next year.”
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